1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to drying, particularly to the drying of shoes, soft toys, and similar objects, in a dryer.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is not uncommon for athletic shoes or sneakers to become wet. This may occur, for example, when it rains unexpectedly and an individual must walk across wet ground and/or through wet grass to reach a desired destination. Such shoes may also become sweaty and dirty and need washing to restore their appearance and eliminate undesired odor. Since the wearing of wet shoes is neither comfortable nor healthy, it is of course desirable to dry the shoes before they are worn again.
The same relates to soft or stuffed toys which often become wet or dirty when children play on a rainy day or simply leave them on the ground or wet grass.
The drying of wet shoes, soft toys, or similar items may be accomplished in a number of different ways. They may simply be exposed to the atmosphere. Although this prevents damage due to excessive heat, it may require a long period of time, depending on humidity and temperature. Also they may become mildewed before they become dry.
To achieve more rapid drying, some individuals have resorted to placing items in an oven. However, ovens for baking food are not designed for drying items. Therefore, even on a relatively low temperature setting, the elements that heat the oven may make the items sufficiently hot to cause them to shrink or warp. If soles of shoes or parts of soft toys are made of rubber or plastic, these may be irreversibly deformed, softened, and fused to the surface of the oven rack.
Wet shoes and soft toys can also be cycled through an automatic clothes dryer so as to rapidly dry them in a relatively short time. Conventional automatic dryers include a rotating metal drum with a number of radially extending vanes on the inner surface of the drum for tumbling clothes. Tumbling exposes the greatest surface area of the clothes to the drying air currents passing through the drum so as to improve overall drying effectiveness and efficiency.
However, although the rotating and tumbling action produced by the dryer is effective for drying spreadable objects, such as clothes, it is inappropriate for drying shoes, soft toys, or similar shape-keeping unspreadable and relatively dense objects. This is because such objects will be tossed repeatedly in the drying drum, bounce against the walls of the drum, and produce annoying banging noises. The shoes, soft toys, etc., may become damaged by scuffing against each other or the vanes or walls of the drum. Heavy shoes may even damage the vanes, or the surface of the drum itself.
In order to solve the problems associated with tumbling of shoes in an automatic dryer, it has been proposed to use a special apparatus for drying shoes in a dryer. This apparatus, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,016 to S. Grisby et al., October 1987, comprises a special platform for mounting and securing shoes to be dried. The platform itself is attached to metal walls of the drying drum by powerful magnets.
Although the Grisby device solves the problems associated with tumbling of shoes being dried in an automatic dryer, it has a number of disadvantages.
First, the Grisby device does not attach shoes or similar objects to be dried directly to the surface of the drum, but involves the use of an intermediate member. i.e. it uses a mounting platform which has means for securing the shoes and means, such as magnets, for attaching the platform to the inner surface of the drying drum. This platform (several such platforms are used for drying several pairs of shoes) increases the weight of the items in the drum, and occupies useful space inside the drum. Also, the magnets which are used for attaching the platform to the drum's surface have to be strong enough to hold in place the object being dried, and also the platform itself. Therefore, they are heavy and expensive. The shoe-holding platform itself is a rather complicated device of complex configuration with special lips for preventing the shoes from slipping. Therefore, it is expensive and difficult to make. Because it employs magnets, the Grisby device is limited to use in dryers with ferrous metal drums. At the present time many heat-resistant and shockproof plastics are available on the market, and it is quite possible that replaceable drums molded from such plastics or nonferrous metals, such as aluminum, may appear. In this case, the Grisby device, will be unusable.
In case, for any unexpected reason, Grisby's platform becomes separated from the surface (there is a great chance that this may happen when an inexperienced user attaches very heavy item to the platform), the drying drum may be damaged. This is because the metal platform and the heavy magnets will impart strong blows upon the surfaces of the thin-walled drying drum. These blows will be damaging, even when the platform is made of plastic.
A further disadvantage of the Grisby device is that it is rigid and not flexible, not universal in use, and therefore cannot use the radial paddles or vanes of the drum to support shoes or other objects inside the drum. In other words, although the Grisby device can be moved closer to the vane and even rest on it, the vane itself cannot be efficiently used as an additional support means for the items to be dried.